Inspiring

Question

Captivate 12.3 Software Simulation - Narration too quiet, calibrate has no effect

Forum|Forum|1 year ago
June 11, 2024
3 replies
1171 views

I'm trying to record a software simulation (Demo) with narration with Captivate 12.3 on my Windows 11 laptop.

Unfortunately, no matter which microphone I select and calibrate, the audio captured is so faint that I can barely hear about every 10th word. In all the times I've attempted to calibrate, only once did I see green flash on the Input Level indicator bar, and it never came close to "Good".

I get the same result regardless of which microphone I select. I've used a desktop mic, a headset mic, my laptop mic, my webcam mic, and the mic built into my video conferencing monitor.

Thoughts on this?

This topic has been closed for replies.

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Exoptohm390675494ka5

Participant

Check your Windows settings to make sure your mic levels aren't too low. Sometimes, other apps can mess with your mic settings, too.

E

Exoptohm390675494ka5

Participant

Also, turn off any background noise reduction or automatic gain control in your mic settings. These can mess with your audio levels.
If that doesn't fix it, you might want to look into a CPaaS solution. It can give you more control over your audio and video setup, which might help with the issues you're having with Captivate.

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Tichelle_BergAuthor

Inspiring

My settings are all good, thanks for the suggestions. My mic sounds great in any other application. Unfortunately, what's happening is that the calibration meter doesn't even move for me in CP 12.3. I've reported it as a bug and have reset my preferences. That made the calibration meter respond, but the only way I can get audio recorded in CP 12.3 is to max out the physical gain on my mic, and then once the audio is recorded, go slide by slide and double the volume. And it's still really bad audio (of course it is, with the gain maxed). At any rate, this is still ongoing and I'm waiting to address this further with the bug fixers.

RodWard

Community Expert

I never find the Auto Calibrate works well enough. I always experiment with adjusting the Preamplifier Value manually until I find a value that seems to give a strong enough waveform for a particular microphone.

Once you find a value that gives you good audio without clipping (cutting off sounds that are too loud) you should be good to go.

The setting you see above is what I use for my podcast quality microphone.

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Tichelle_BergAuthor

Inspiring

Thanks, @RodWard ! I've used that functionality in Classic Captivate, but it's not available in the new Captivate. Yet. I'm going to say "yet" with hope 🙂

Lilybiri

Legend

Personally I continue to use software simulation in Captivate Classic for many reasons. Workflow is the same but there are less bugs and limitations.

Did you try to edit the audio volume? There are some options within Captivate. Sorry, I rarely use them because I prefer to optimize the audio clips in Audition. In Captivate Classic that is very easy because you have the Library and the roundtripping with Audition. Another feature which is not available in version 12.3.

May I also recommed to log your issue as a bug in the user voice platform? You can go there from within Captivate, it is an option under the Help menu.

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Tichelle_BergAuthor

Inspiring

Hi, @Lilybiri - editing the audio volume was not helpful, either.

I'll definitely log the issue.

Lilybiri

Legend

I hope this is indeed a bug, and you'll get a fix quickly.

If you are looking meanwhile for a workaround: since it is a sim, which is slide-based you should be able to detect the audio clips in the Timeline. There is no Library to find them, but I suppose you can edit the audio clip, which doesn't need to be in Audition. You can use Audacity which is free if you do not have a CC subscription.

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